First things first, see that little graphic to the left? That’s a button you can use to vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics. As a reward, you get an incentive image that I’ve drawn. I polled my followers on Facebook and Twitter for ideas and someone thought it would be interesting to see a Muppet version of Cami. So that’s what you can expect to find if you click on that link.

I’ve flirted with Top Web Comics several times over the years and I’m giving it another spin for a couple of reasons. I was probably prompted by nostalgia since I’ve been busy adding transcripts and cleaning up the archives lately. I’ve been neck-deep in posts from 2003 and there are a lot of references to Top Web Comics from that time.

I also saw Paul Taylor from Wapsi Square pointing his readers to Top Web Comics recently and it made me a little homesick.

I’m not necessarily under the impressing that we’ll make much of a dent in the Top 10 especially since I’m only updating once a week now. But I like the ritual aspect of it. Drawing the comic, then drawing something ancillary to it. I have a stack of these sketches left over from the last time I attempted this in 2009 and I’m thinking I might add them to the Theater Hopper store soon. If someone wants to buy them, great. If not, no big loss, either.

By the way, Storenvy, my storefront generator recently announced some new discount and promotional options built into their site. So keep an eye out for some good deals there in the future. I’ve got way too much inventory right now that I want to get rid of. I’m prepared to get drastic.

Anyway, onto the comic.

First, I have to apologize for the comic being late this week. But I have good reason. The reason is two feet tall with pigtails.

Pearl turned 2 years-old on Saturday and (as I am wont to do on my children’s birthdays) I wanted to share a picture with you here.

I had mentioned Pearl’s birthday on Twitter over the weekend and I received several messages from people who couldn’t believe how fast time had gone by. Lots of people commenting on how it was like I just announced she was born yesterday… and now she’s 2!

Believe me, I empathize. The time has gone by very fast.

We had a great time celebrating with Pearl over the weekend and I want to thank everyone for their well-wishes.

The birthday fun didn’t stop there, though. Oh, not at all! On Sunday, we celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday. So between the two of them, I didn’t have much time to think about anything else. By the time Sunday evening rolled around, I was shot.

BUT THE COMIC!… We still haven’t talked about the comic, have we?

I knew when I put director Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve in my sights, I wanted to do something to the comic I did about his previous film, Valentine’s Day. That comic was very well received and – to be truthful – it’s a blast coming up with the oddball celebrity choices to list on the fake IMDB page.

My problem, however, was not wanting to recycle the same joke. I didn’t want to be guilty of plagiarizing myself. So, I went to Twitter with my problem.

Most people said the same thing: “The producers of New Year’s Eve didn’t show any originality with their new film. Why should you?”

But I got to give it up to Josh Anderson from Sketch Layer who came up with the idea to have Tom show up as a cast member in the film.

I decided to ad a little bit of a paranoid spin to the concept and sneak the cameraman into the last panel. But the genesis of the idea was all Josh. So thanks, Josh!

I don’t know if I have much more to say about the comic than that. But talking about the comic last night on Twitter gave me some ideas going forward. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I would really appreciate it if you used the li’l old ShareThis links below this post to help spread the comic around. Since it was late, it helps to let people know that the site’s been updated.

Discussion (9) ¬

these light holiday themed romantic comedies are basically “People Magazine: the Movie” which will always be popular but not substantial.

And sometimes people just want to look at the pretty furniture and buildings and say “Oooh, that is whatshername, and he is that guy, and there are the so and so twins.” It is like a giant game of memory with celebrity faces instead of apples and boats and catapillars.

Speaking of which I just saw the Muppet Movie and while I liked it there was something nagging at me that seemed a bit off and I just realized what it was.

There were not enough celebrity cameos. there were some and they were cameoes but they just did not pop up randomly through the whole movie with the “just a friend stopping by” kind of feel that the earlier movies had accomplished.

Maybe it is the new century and the contractual obligations and the studio choosing who can stop by and who cannot but while there were a number of cameoes, to me it just did not feel like Carol Kane turning around and saying “yeth?” which was so light and momentary and friendly.

Maybe it was just the time and things have changed but if Garry Marshall can get a people’s magazine worth of celebrities to show up for a movie then I guess i am just a little saddened to see a world where the Muppets cannot do the same.

Okay, I just endured this dreck… you think Garry Marshall’s not pandering to the Valentine’s Day crowd? In the outtakes during the closing credits they actually got Carla Gugino (who plays a doc who helps Jessica Biel give birth) to look between Biel’s legs and pull out a Blu-Ray copy of Valentine’s Day. Then she pulled out the DVD version and said “Look! Twins!”